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Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born June 26, 1979), also know as Alias (Ryan Alias Tedder) is an American singer, and Grammy nominated songwriter and record producer born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Tedder was raised by an extended family of missionaries and pastors. Tedder began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the suzuki method, whereby young children learn to play an instrument "by ear rather than reading notes". His early interest in music was prompted by his musician father and school-teacher mother, who coaxed their young son into practicing piano in exchange for candy corn. Tedder started singing at the age of seven. A self-taught vocalist, Tedder began honing this skill at the age of 12 by imitating his favorite artists, which ranged from The Beatles to acts as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Sting. He has commented, "I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was 18." He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, and personally formed groups.
He met and became friends with guitarist Zach Filkins on their high school soccer team, at Colorado Springs Christian High School in Colorado Springs (Tedder and Filkins would later go on to form the band OneRepublic). During this time and through college Tedder taught himself to play a variety of instruments, including guitar, drums and bass. He attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, majoring in PR and advertising and minoring in business. It was as a freshman that Tedder began to showcase his own material. Tedder lost his degree scholarship in his sophomore year, because he "kept skipping classes to write songs". He has since stated that he took this as a sign that he was meant to pursue a career in music.

For several years Tedder worked as a waiter, and also a shop assistant at Pottery Barn, before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville, singing on demos to break into the music scene. He produced demos for songwriters and labels, charging $300 to $400 a track. Tedder claims that Dreamworks offered him his first publishing deal shortly after his arrival; however, he was intent on pursuing a career as an artist and his first venture in that arena came via a different route all together.
At the age of 21, Tedder competed in a singer-songwriter competition and was selected by 'N Sync singer Lance Bass as one of five finalists to perform on a one hour special on MTV, performing original material in front of millions of viewers. The prize for the winner was a music contract with Bass's now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment. The contestants performed live and were then rated by judges and the audience, the highest scoring artist winning the contract. Tedder’s performance of one of his own songs, “The Look,” received the most votes from the judges and fans, and he won the competition; however, a contract with a recording label was not finalized and no album was released. Tedder later revealed the record and publishing deal he was offered, "wasn't real. It was just a bunch of hype that didn't turn into anything." Matt Clizbe of the music website, clizbeats.com, has since commented, "While the concept was tried and true and continues to be used today, the Freelance show and contest did not last. Unfortunately, the public seemed to fall out of love with the Lance Bass fronted project before Ryan's potential could be realized…As the show faded so did the public's knowledge of Tedder and their eagerness to hear his music." However, Clizbe adds that this "may have been the best thing that ever happened to Tedder. While the loss of TV support is often the end for most artists, Tedder's talent shown through and his career was just beginning…"
After college Tedder moved to New York, then Nashville, continuing to write and produce songs wherever and for whomever he could, hoping for his big break. Before his eventual move to Los Angeles to start OneRepublic, Tedder’s talents caught the attention of the successful hip hop singer and record producer, Timbaland, who “formally took him under his wing”. Tedder has commented, "I was with Timbaland from 2002-2004 to develop as an artist, but it turned out to be more like going to school for producing. I was already producing for other artists at the time, but being with him for two years stepped up my game a thousand-fold."

As well as producing, Tedder also sings lead vocals and plays guitar and piano for rock band, OneRepublic. The five piece band was formed in Colorado Springs in 2003 by Tedder and high school classmate Zach Filkins. Tedder has since revealed that the band was formed at a "crossroads" in his life: "I was offered two publishing deals within two months of being in Nashville…I could have just written songs and lived a carefree life, but I knew that I had to be an artist. I wanted to form a rock band and create my own sound." Based in LA, OneRepublic started out as an unsigned act on the social networking website, MySpace. Since June 2004 they have accumulated over 26.4 million plays for their music on the site. As of 2007 they are the number one band on MySpace and have been in the MySpace Music's Top Artists since summer 2006. The band gained further exposure when their 2007 single, "Apologize", was re-mixed and re-released on Timbaland's compilation album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The remix became an international chart hit in the fall of 2007. The song broke records after gaining 10,693 spins in one week. According to SoundScan, it is one of only 2 songs that have reached 3 million legal downloads in history and is the second best selling song of the decade. OneRepublic's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, includes both the song's original version and version with Timbaland, and was released on November 20, 2007 on Timbaland's Mosley Music Group imprint via Interscope Records. The band had previously been signed to Columbia Records, but although their album was due to be released in 2006, this did not occur. Tedder explained, "Crap happened. People got fired. Labels merged and politics abounded". Subsequently, the band was released from their deal with Columbia, and they were signed by Timbaland in the summer of 2006 to be the first rock band released on Interscope Records. Tedder has commented on the success of his band's hit single, "Apologize": "The toughest thing to do is write a hit song, but we had a hit song before we had an album… What has happened has been really strange and really great."

Please go on reading the Discography site for more information about Ryan's music.

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